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Valley Drug Converts Videos to Digital

Valley Drug in Valley City recently acquired a North Dakota-based program called Zoovio that transcodes video tape and allows users to watch them on any internet connected device.

Zoovio has the ability to digitize 47 different types of video tape including VHS. A user can then access their videos from any internet connected device including smart phones, tablets, computers and televisions.

Amy Milbrandt, photo lab manager, said, “It’s a network where you can share videos with you family and store it for your future use. Instead of having a bunch of VHS tapes sitting on your shelf, you can have them all on this online account.”

Zoovio is a Pride of Dakota product based out of Mandan and is used in North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota. Because the company only allows one program per zip code, Valley Drug is the only place that has Zoovio in Valley City.

Those who want to take advantage of the program can just bring their media, such as tapes, DVDs, memory cards or the video recorder itself, to Valley Drug, and staff in the photo lab will upload it to the website.

“We can do several of the medias in the store that won’t have to be shipped out,” Milbrandt said. “Reel-to-reel will have be shipped to Bismarck and then shipped back to the store, though.”

Milbrandt said the process should take about a week and the cost is $19.95 for two hours. There is no fee for having an account with Zoovio.

“We set up an account for them, and they’ll go on and reset their passwords and we’ll be able to upload to their account,” Milbrandt said. “We won’t be able to access and look at it, just upload new things to it.”

The website also has a sharing option that allows users to share videos with family and friends.

“You can share specific videos,” Milbrandt said, but users don’t have to share them all.

The site is also linkable to Facebook.

Users can watch their videos by streaming them to any internet capable device such as their computer, smartphone, blu-ray player or internet capable television. The website is www.zoovio.com.

“There’s also a unit that you can attach to your TV to be able to watch them on there,” Milbrandt said.

Milbrandt said VHS tapes and other hard copies of videos are not forever materials and often deteriorate.

“Digital files are really the next step in the evolution of video,” she said, adding that Zoovio provides backups to all their files.

Zoovio backs up their hard drive several times, and the files are backed up on an offshore database.